The Cycle, Vol 2, No 1
Articles in this issue
- A cyclist narrates an extract from the diary of a deceased friend, wheelman Herbert F., who on a night ride home heard the voice of his dead fiancée calling his name and dismounted — only to discover a fallen elm tree blocking the road ahead. Two months later the friend died from injuries sustained in a race crash.
- John Williamson, a tricyclist on a summer tour, chances upon a broken-down trap in the dark and helps two ladies — one of whom turns out to be his acquaintance Miss Lord — by staying with the vehicle while they ride his machine for help; his gallantry wins him an extended stay at the Usher household and a romance with Florence Lord. Reprinted from the Wheel World.
- A woman cyclist reflects on meeting little Mrs. Wheelman on the road, describing the joyless money-focused household the woman escaped by riding daily, and the transforming effect the birth — and subsequent death — of her baby girl had on the cold Wheelman family. Signed "Daisie."
- New Orleans correspondent reports that A. M. Hill has offered any local rider a two-to-six-mile start in the fifty-mile road race he donated a medal for, while C. B. Guillotte has challenged him on even terms; the Crescent Wheelmen are also planning one- and five-mile club races to identify their fastest riders.
- Editor Abbot Bassett's column of short notes and commentary covers the Springfield and Lynn tournaments, the amateur law debate, Rowe's racing dominance, League membership, L. A. W. politics, visiting wheelmen, and numerous brief items from the cycling world.
- A poem by F. F. S. (reprinted from the News) celebrating the dramatic moment when the last-lap bell rings in a cycle race, comparing the effect on the bold rider to a battle trumpet and on the faltering one to a death knell.
- Complete race-by-race results from the three-day Lynn tournament (24–27 September 1886), covering novice, amateur, promateur, and professional events on bicycle and tricycle, with lap-race points tallies and officials listed; W. A. Rowe, Fred Foster, and W. M. Woodside were among the headline winners.